By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The job of the Border Security Force (BSF) has got increasingly difficult and dangerous along the India – Bangladesh border. Meghalaya, which shares 443km border with Bangladesh, along with other northeastern states, has made the work of the border guards difficult due to rampant erosion of river banks along the border which has damaged the barbed wire fencing and destroyed roads and border lines in these border areas.
The region including West Bengal shares 4096km border with Bangladesh and out of that 2980km lies on land and the remaining is riverine from where the main problem is arising. This is a major concern for the border areas as there are 554 common rivers that India shares with neighboring Bangladesh.
A BSF official, while apprising that the situation is worse in Southern Assam and comparatively better in the Meghalaya sector, said that the seasonal floods and heavy rains in the region have affected the border fencing and has damaged roadways in the past many years thereby creating difficulty in patrolling those stretches on foot and vehicle.
He also said that these porous borders are otherwise the hotbeds of crime, such as, smuggling and illegal infiltration. While informing that the collapse of the border roadways have given a free run to the antisocial elements with their unlawful activities, he said that the large stretches of unfenced border has added to their already difficult task in hand caused by nature’s wrath.
Though both the countries have earlier agreed to construct embankments on both the sides to check this issue, that is, preventing the forces to keep vigil on the border front, however there has not been any development on the ground as construction work has not yet started.
The official also said that visit of the joint technical team from both sides and hurdles like land acquisition has once again posed trouble in the construction of embankment.
Meanwhile, the Indian side has from time to time with the help of public works and water resources department placed cemented blocks along the riverine, which is reciprocated by laying stones on the side of Bangladesh following which there is erosion on the Indian side. It may be mentioned that out of the 3437km India Bangladesh border to be fenced, 2761km fencing has been completed.